Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Presidential election season is about to hit fever pitch with this week’s New Hampshire Primary. 

The party nominations could be decided by the time Northwest voters go to the polls.  But that isn’t stopping supporters of some of the leading candidates from getting involved.  Correspondent Chris Lehman reports.

Oregonian David Pearl is a big supporter of Democrat Barack Obama.  So he eagerly watched results of last week’s Iowa caucus.

David Pearl:  “I was like a teenage girl at a rock concert, I was so happy.”

But Pearl won’t be watching all of the primary results from his Salem living room.  He’s getting on a plane this week and heading to Nevada in advance of that state’s January 19th caucus.

David Pearl:  “I’ll be helping out, going door to door, phone calls, maybe driving people to the caucus or whatever needs to be done.”

Doug Durrett isn’t going quite as far for his favorite candidate, Republican Mike Huckabee.  He’s planning to rally supporters near his home in Lebanon, Oregon.

The fact that the GOP nomination might be locked up by the time Oregon voters go to the polls in May doesn’t bother Durrett.

Doug Durrett:  “I’m happy with the system the way it is right now.  I understand that some people aren’t.  I would think that first of all maybe Iowa needs to, if anything, set theirs a little further back instead of having it so early, but I think Oregon’s is fine.”

While Oregon voters have to wait until May, Idaho and Washington voters get a chance to weigh in next month.  But with so many states holding primaries so early in the election season, it’s unclear whether any Northwest states will play a major role in the nomination process.